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You are here: Home Family & Kids Kids Pre-school activities in Belgium

27/04/2009Pre-school activities in Belgium

There are plenty of places offering to care for and educate children under five. Here's an overview of day-care, playgroups, kindergartens and nursery schools.

Public infant day-care centres

There are excellent infant day-care centres, known as crèches/cribs, with fully qualified staff (French/Dutch speaking) that take care of children up to the age of 2½ throughout the country. Priority is usually given to children whose parents work full time. They can be used on a part-time basis if required, but this may vary from commune to commune. The cost varies, according to the family's income bracket. Full details can be obtained from the organisations that supervise and set the national standards.

Office de la Naissance et de l'Enfance (ONE)
Av de la Toison d'Or, 86
1060 Brussels
Tel 02 542 12 11
www.one.be (English)

Kind & -Gezin
Halleportlaan 27
1060 Brussels
Tel 02 533 12 11
Fax 02 544 03 10
www.kindengezin.be  (Dutch only)

In addition, the ONE and the K&G have a list of accepted baby-minders.

Private infant day-care centres

There are also many private infant day-care centres available with many meeting the exacting standards of the two organizations. Though reasonably expensive, they could be very convenient to some parents.

Playgroups

There are various playgroups for English-speaking and bilingual children.

Women's club and churches are good sources of information about English-speaking playgroups. Children meet in small groups in each other's homes. For children from 2½ to 4 years, there are paid-for playgroups, where they go three or four mornings per week to take part in creative activities. There are also mother-and-baby clubs and support groups.

The childcare centre receives your child from birth and up to 15-16 months of age. Afterwards, the child will continue in the day nursery and stay there up to the age of 2½, the legal age to enter the "big school".

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